Middle East

Trump Announces Two-Week Pause on Iran Strikes
Trump Announces Two-Week Pause on Iran Strikes

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a two-week suspension of planned military strikes on Iran on Wednesday, citing direct appeals from the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir.  “Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal ...

Iraq's Kataeb Hezbollah Says Will Release U.S. Journalist Shelly Kittleson
Iraq's Kataeb Hezbollah Says Will Release U.S. Journalist Shelly Kittleson

Iraq's powerful Kataeb Hezbollah armed group announced on Tuesday that it would release U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson, a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad. "In recognition of the national stances of the outgoing prime minister, we have decided to release the American defendant Shelly Kittleson, on the condition that she leaves ...

Netanyahu Says Israel Struck Railways, Bridges in Iran
Netanyahu Says Israel Struck Railways, Bridges in Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel struck on Tuesday railways and bridges in Iran "used by the Revolutionary Guards", after Iranian officials reported damage to at least two bridges and railway infrastructure. "We are crushing the terror regime in Iran... with even greater vigour and with increasing force," ...

U.S.-Israeli Strikes Hit Iran's Kharg Island
U.S.-Israeli Strikes Hit Iran's Kharg Island

U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran expand to new targets on Tuesday, hitting economic and transportation infrastructure across the country. The U.S. and Israel hit the key Iranian oil export terminal of Kharg island, media reported Tuesday. "The American-Zionist enemy has carried out several attacks on Kharg island, and several explosions have ...

Israel Halts Strike on Lebanon-Syria Crossing After U.S. Intervention
Israel Halts Strike on Lebanon-Syria Crossing After U.S. Intervention

Israel paused plans to strike a key Lebanon-Syria border crossing after both countries urged the U.S. to keep the route open, a Lebanese source told Reuters Tuesday. The Israeli military had warned on April 4 that it would target the Masnaa crossing, the main land border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, “in the near future,” alleging that ...

New Strikes in Tehran as Deadline Looms for Trump Threat to Infrastructure
New Strikes in Tehran as Deadline Looms for Trump Threat to Infrastructure

New strikes rocked Tehran on Tuesday, with Iran showing no sign of backing down as a U.S. deadline loomed for it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or have its civilian infrastructure "decimated," according to President Donald Trump. The U.S. leader has warned that unless Tehran allows free passage through the strategic oil chokepoint by midnight ...

Israel Military Says Completed Forward Deployment in South Lebanon
Israel Military Says Completed Forward Deployment in South Lebanon

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had completed the deployment of ground troops along a "defense line" in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. The military has not given any geographical details on the furthest point to which its soldiers have advanced into Lebanese territory. Israeli media reported that the ...

How the Iran War Can Help Reorient Shia Identity
Op-edHow the Iran War Can Help Reorient Shia Identity

As the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran nears the limits of its original target bank, the contours of a new phase are beginning to emerge, one defined by the search for a political exit from the war. Discussions are no longer confined to closed-door deliberations but are now unfolding in public. Fundamental questions are emerging about ...

Oil Prices Rally, Stocks Edge Up After Trump's Latest Iran Threat
Oil Prices Rally, Stocks Edge Up After Trump's Latest Iran Threat

Oil prices rose Tuesday while equities edged up tentatively as investors assessed Donald Trump's latest deadline for Iran to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz or be "decimated." As the Middle East war entered its sixth week, the U.S. president warned Tehran that its civilian infrastructure would be destroyed if it did not let ...

Hezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel
Op-edHezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel

A false claim, now common in Western media and academia, portrays Hezbollah as having emerged in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of Lebanon. In reality, Hezbollah arose in the wake of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as part of an effort to establish an Islamic state in a Lebanon fractured by warring militias. Since ...

Trump Speaks to Press on Iran as Ceasefire Proposals Waver
Trump Speaks to Press on Iran as Ceasefire Proposals Waver

U.S. President Donald Trump held a series of public speeches on Iran at the White House on Monday as the U.S. and Iran approach Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline for a deal. Trump has claimed success in U.S. operations in Iran so far, asserting that “we can leave Iran now and it will take decades for it to get back to what it was, but ...

Gaza Hospital Says Clashes, Israeli Strikes Kill 10
Gaza Hospital Says Clashes, Israeli Strikes Kill 10

A Gaza hospital said clashes and Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 people on Monday near a school sheltering displaced people in the centre of the Palestinian territory. The incident is the latest to shake a fragile US-backed ceasefire that has been in place since October 10 and has largely halted the war between Israel and Hamas. "At ...